This invention relates to an apparatus for separating elongate items, such as chocolate bars and then advancing the items to a subsequent processing station, such as a packing machine. Efficient packing machines for wrapping chocolate bars should receive the articles individually, that is, spaced from one another and in an orientation in which their longitudinal dimension is parallel to the direction of feed. Separating apparatuses suitable for this purpose are disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,930,571, German Offenlegungsschriften (non-examined published patent applications) No. 2,339,405 and 3,426,673, as well as published European Patent Application No. 62,618.
Frequently, the chocolate bars are discharged from the production machine in a direction which is transverse to the longitudinal dimension of the article. In such cases, as disclosed in German Offenlegungsschrift No. 3,426,673 and European Patent Application No. 62,618, the conveying direction of the chocolate bars is altered by transferring the chocolate bars from a first conveyor belt to a second conveyor belt which is oriented perpendicularly to the first conveyor belt. In order to avoid malfunctions during such a transfer, according to the European Patent Application No. 626,618, the chocolate bars are, before they are transferred to the second conveyor, slightly turned in one direction whereby one end face of each article will be slightly leading relative to the opposite, other end face. In this manner, the articles will be transferred to the second conveyor belt such that they first engage the latter with their leading end portion and then, while the transfer is taking place, the items are turned back through the same angle so that, as a result, they will assume, on the second conveyor, an orientation which is identical to that they had on the first conveyor but they will be advanced by the second conveyor in a direction which is perpendicular to that of the first conveyor. In order to impart the slight turning motion on the items, the latter are first advanced on the first conveyor transversely to their length dimension by two side-by-side arranged conveyor belts driven with identical speed. The two conveyor belts are longitudinally adjoined by respective, side-by-side arranged further two conveyor belts whose identical speed is greater than that of the previous (upstream) conveyor pair. The two transfer locations between the upstream conveyor pair and the downstream conveyor pair are longitudinally offset so that, as a result, between the two transfer locations associated with the two pairs of conveyor belts, each article lies, along one length portion, on a relatively slowly advancing belt while the other length portion is already situated on a relatively fast running belt. This arrangement causes a slight twist of each article about an axis which is perpendicular to the face of the conveyor belts forming the two conveyor belt pairs.
The above-described apparatus, disclosed in the European Patent Application No. 62,618 is adapted for use only with relatively slow packing machines having an output of up to approximately 300 articles per minute. Also, the apparatus is poorly suited for irregular chocolate bars where occasionally two adjacent bars are connected to one another by their chocolate coating, because bars are not reliably separated by the prior art apparatus.